Across the Lethe
by Kaimu Nanashi
Summary: After being murdered by Clytemnestra, Agamemnon meets his daughter Iphigenia in the afterlife. Rated for the circumstances that brought them to the afterlife in the first place.
1. Chapter 1

Yes, it's in play format. But it's in decent, correctly spelled play format with correct grammer. What more do you people want?

Across the Lethe

INT. THE HOUSE OF HADES, ON THE SHORE OF THE RIVER LETHE NIGHT

AGAMEMNON arrives at the shore of the river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. The river is inside the giant cavern of Hades, and shadowed so that it is difficult to see more than a few feet in front of him.

AGAMEMNON: So it has come to this. I was a king of Mycenae, once, my army thousands strong. My queen, although a spiteful, serpentine woman, had born me many beautiful children, whom I loved dearly. We could have lived happily, had Helen, my brother's treacherous wife, not fled to Troy with Paris the prince. Because of her, I was forced to send Iphigenia, my oldest and favorite daughter, to the alter to be murdered by a priest of the goddess Artemis. It was either that, or allow the remaining members of my family to be torn apart by my own army. And how does my dear queen repay me for protecting the lives of her and her remaining children? She takes a lover in my absence, while I am at war, fighting in Troy for her sister's sins, and murders me upon my return. Never was a human soul more miserable, more accursed than mine…

IPHIGENIA steps out from the shadows.

IPHIGENIA: Father?

AGAMEMNON: Iphi…Iphigenia?

Iphigenia runs towards her father, her arms outstretched as if she wants to embrace him. However, she stops suddenly when she is about three feet away, and lowers her arms and eyes.

AGAMEMNON: Iphigenia, what is the matter? Why will you not greet me?

IPHIGENIA: Father…do you love me?

AGAMEMNON: What? Of course I do. Why would you doubt it? Haven't you always been my favorite, the first and most beautiful of all my daughers? My most loved? Why do you ask me this?

Agamemnon reaches towards his daughter (Iphigenia) to lift up her chin, so that she is looking at him. Iphigenia moves away from his touch.

AGAMEMNON: Why do you recoil from your own father? Why won't you look at me? Iphigenia?

Iphigenia takes a couple of steps back.

IPHIGENIA: Am I still beautiful, even now?

Agamemnon makes a few half-hearted attempts at a reply, but all die on his lips.

IPHIGENIA: I should be. I haven't changed since the beginning of the war, when I was to be the bride of a hero.

Agamemnon looks away in shame.

IPHIGENIA: Father, why did you tell that lie? Why did you tell mother that I was to marry Achilles? Had you told the truth, it would have at least prepared us for my sacrifice, and I could have come alone. Instead, we were only prepared for joy, and my mother and younger siblings came with me, expecting a celebration. Their grief was unexpected, hidden beneath a happy deception, and so it gave a sharper blow. They were forced to bear witness as my wedding became my funeral.

(Pause)

Father, why did I have to die?

AGAMEMNON: There was no other way! Iphigenia, if I had had any choice in the matter, do you think that I would have let you be sacrificed?

Agamemnon attempts to close some of the distance between himself and Iphigenia.

AGAMEMNON: The ships had to set sail, and the priest of Artemis told me that the only way to bring the wind was to sacrifice you, my most precious child. You know that such a thing was the last thing that I would ever desire. But if I had not, riots would have broken out among the soldiers, a wave of violence that would not end until not only you were dead, but also your mother, your sisters, your little brother, and your father, me. You understand my predicament?

IPHIGENIA: As perfectly as I did the day you sent me to die. But tell me, who was it who killed the young rabbits, whose deaths so offended Artemis enough to demand my life?

Agamemnon freezes.

IPHIGENIA: You had a choice.

Iphigenia turns to leave, but Agamemnon grabs her shoulder.

AGAMEMNON: Iphigenia, stay with me. Please.

IPHIGENIA: The winds came before my death. Did you notice?

AGAMEMNON: I…yes. Yes, I did. I tried to stop the sacrifice when I saw the winds arrive, but…I…

(Pause)

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Iphigenia allows Agamemnon to embrace her.

IPHIGENIA: But father, why are you here? Why are you dead? Were you killed in battle? Is the war over Helen still raging?

Agamemnon tenses, remembering his death at Clytemnestra's hand.

IPHIGENIA: Father? Is something wrong? What happened?

Agamemnon forces his expression to relax.

AGAMEMNON: I… Yes. Yes, I was killed in the war. But do not worry, my daughter; the war is finished. The Greeks won, and the remaining soldiers have returned home to their families.

IPHIGENIA: I'm glad. Before I was sacrificed, mother was so furious with you. I was worried that she was the one who sent you here.

AGAMEMNON: I promise you, she was not. I died honorably, fighting for Greece. But come, let us drink from the river Lethe, like the rest of the lost souls, and forget our misfortunes. Perhaps in the next life, the gods will show us mercy.


	2. A Few Notes on the Play

A Few Notes on the Play:

First, let me explain the location, the House of Hades. The House of Hades, the Greek version of the underworld, contained five rivers, the Styx, the Lethe, the Acheron, the Cocytus, and the Phlegethon. The Lethe, which was mentioned in the play, was the river of forgetfulness. According to mythology, the dead would drink from this river in order to forget their past life, so they would not retain their memories into their next reincarnation. It is by this river we find Agamemnon, who is summarizing the events that lead up to his death. Iphigenia, who has been waiting for him, starts to greet him, but catches herself. She remembers that she was sacrificed, and becomes hesitant. She is unsure if her father still loves her, since he sent her to die, and she has spent the years in the underworld since her death contemplating her sacrifice, and whether or not it was necessary. She is also angry with her father for lying to her mother and her siblings, since she knows it only made her death harder for them to bear. She also asks her father to re-explain her sacrifice. Agamemnon defends himself, saying that he had no choice to sacrifice her, that she would have died anyway, and appeals to her love of her family, telling her that if she had not been sacrificed, everyone else would have died with her. However, this time, Iphigenia has had years to consider the situation, and reminds him that he was the one who angered Artemis; When he made the choice to kill her rabbits, he also made the choice to kill her as well. (I admit Iphigenia's line there was voicing my own judgment of Agamemnon, mainly because I disliked that his daughter had to die for his own mistake, and his own greed.)

Iphigenia turns to leave, but her father, who has spent the Trojan War stewing in his regret over his daughter's death, begs her not to go. Iphigenia hesitates when she hears her father's plea, because it is an unusual tone for his voice to take. Agamemnon usually demands what he wants, instead of asking. She stops, but asks him if he noticed the wind that came before the execution, although it was her death that was supposed to release the wind. When Agamemnon replies that he did notice, and then tried to stop the sacrifice, she forgives him somewhat. She allows him to embrace her, even if she does not return it.

Since the matter of her sacrifice has been cleared up, she then asks her father why he is dead. Her father, figuring that being sacrificed on her supposed "wedding day" was traumatic enough, lies to her and tells her that he perished in battle, instead of revealing that her mother, Clytemnestra, murdered him upon his return over Iphigenia's death. They then go to drink from the Lethe, in order to forget the circumstances of their deaths and to start over in a new life.


End file.
